How emotional states modulate cognitive control strategies across language-switching contexts

Abstract The present study investigates how emotional states (positive, negative, neutral) and language-switching contexts with different switching frequencies (low: 25%, medium: 50%, high: 75%) jointly modulate executive control among unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals. By combining a language-switching task with a Flanker task within response trials, we found that compared to low- and high-switching contexts, negative states enhanced executive control in medium switching contexts by optimizing resource allocation, as reflected by reduced N2 and increased P3 effects. In high-switching contexts, positive states facilitated proactive control, with greater P3 effects in incongruent than congruent trials. However, negative states favored reactive control, with greater P3 effects in congruent than incongruent trials. We propose the Emotion Adaptive Control (EAC) model, a framework which offers a more comprehensive perspective on how bilingual language control adapts to domain-general cognitive control under emotional states.